Gordon Beneke, 12 February 1914, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, d. 31 May 2000, Costa Mesa, California, USA. Starting out on soprano saxophone, Beneke switched to tenor, working with various bands in the south-west. In 1938, he joined Glenn Miller where, in addition to featured tenor, he was also a regular vocalist. Beneke sang with engaging charm, if limited ability, on such class
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Cyrus Whitfield Bond, 1 June 1915, Enville, Oklahoma, USA, d. 12 June 1978, Burbank, California, USA. Born into a poor farming family, Bond taught himself to play ukelele and guitar and played at local dances In 1934 he moved to Oklahoma and worked on radio, appearing as Cyrus Whitfield, Johnny Whitfield and then Johnny Bond. In 1937, he worked with Jimmy Wakely and Scotty H
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Roy James Brown 10 September 1925, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 25 May 1981, Los Angeles, California, USA. Brown formed his own gospel quartet, the Rookie Four, and frequently sang in the local church before moving to California in 1942. After two years as a professional boxer, he began entering and winning amateur talent contests with his renditions of the pop songs of h
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James King Kern Kyser, 18 June 1906, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA, d. 23 July 1985, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. A popular band leader in the USA during the 30s and 40s, Kyser was born into an academically excellent family, and he too became a professor, though hardly in the conventional sense. While at high school he developed a flair for showmanship, a
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Helen Fogel, 12 April 1917 or 1918, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, d. 11 July 1999, Los Angeles, California, USA. Forrest began singing as child and by her mid-teenage was appearing regularly on radio in New York City. Many of her appearances were on CBS, with whom she held a salaried job, and this led to her being heard by Artie Shaw who hired her in 1937. The other band s
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9 October 1915, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, USA, d. 11 December 1975, New York City, New York, USA. While still in her early teens, Wiley left home to begin a career singing with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was interrupted when, following a fall while horse-riding, she suffered temporary blindness. She recovered her sight and at the age of 19 was back with Reisman again. She
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29 February 1904, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 12 June 1957, New York City, New York, USA. Musically active as a small child under the tutelage of his father, who was a coal miner turned music teacher, Dorsey switched from brass to reed instruments while still in his early teens. Concentrating on clarinet and alto saxophone, he played in various bands, mostly with his b
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David Daniel Kaminski, 18 January 1913, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA, d. 3 March 1987, Los Angeles, California, USA. Kaye was an extraordinary entertainer and an apparently inexhaustible comedian, mimic and dancer who seemed to be able to twist his face and body into any shape he wanted. As a singer, he specialized in very fast double talk and tongue twisters, but
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Albert Cernick, 22 February 1927, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 1 July 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Mitchell was an enormously popular singer in the USA and especially the UK, particularly during the 50s, with a straightforward style, rich voice and affable personality. Although his birthplace is often given as Yugoslavia, his parents homeland, Mitchell confirmed in a 19
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Lester Raymond Brown, 14 March 1912, Reinerton, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 4 January 2001, Los Angeles, California, USA. By 1932, when he entered Duke University at Durham, North Carolina, Brown had already attended Ithaca College and the New York Military Academy and had studied harmony, arranging and composing, as well as becoming proficient on soprano saxophone, clarinet and b
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Woodrow Charles Herman, 16 May 1913, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, d. 29 October 1987, Los Angeles, California, USA. A child prodigy, Herman sang and tap-danced in local clubs before touring as a singer in vaudeville. To improve his act he took up the saxophone and later the clarinet, all by the age of 12. By his mid-teens he was sufficiently accomplished to play in a band, and
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The Boswell Sisters were Connee Boswell (3 December 1907, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, d. 11 October 1976), Martha (b. 9 July 1905, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, d. 1958) and Helvetia, known as Vet (b. 20 May 1911, d. 12 November 1988). Born into a white middle-class family and raised in New Orleans, the sisters broke with convention by developing a close interest in black musi
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15 March 1916, Albany, Georgia, USA, d. 5 July 1983, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Harry James father played trumpet in the band of a touring circus, and at first Harry played the drums, but then he, too, took up the trumpet and at the age of nine was also playing in the circus band. He showed such enormous promise that his father had soon taught him everything he knew. Harr
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Rowland Bernart Berigan, 2 November 1908, Hilbert, Calumet, Wisconsin, USA, d. 2 June 1942, New York City, New York, USA. One of the outstanding trumpeters of the swing era, Berigan was heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong and at his best played with much of his idols attack and zest. In the early 30s he worked with numerous bands, including those of Paul Whiteman, Fr
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